Karachi: At least eight opposition lawmakers — belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — were barred from entering the Sindh Assembly premises on Tuesday in view of their “disorderly conduct damaging the sanctity of the House” during yesterday’s session, prompting the party leaders to stage a sit-in outside the assembly gate today.
The barred MPAs were identified as Saeed Ahmed, Rabistan Khan, Arsalan Taj Hussain, Muhammad Ali Aziz, Adeel Ahmed, Shah Nawaz Jadoon, Bilal Ahmed and Raja Azhar Khan.
Today, a group of PTI lawmakers arrived at the assembly, accompanied by supporters holding drums, while a few others banned from the session wore garlands, but they were stopped by the security staff. Opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh also joined them and attempted to pressure the staff to allow them entry, but in vain.
Amid resistance from the guards, PTI’s Shabbir Qureshi, Muhammad Riaz Haider and Abdul Rasheed of the MMA [who was among the MPAs looking to enter the building] scaled the gate and managed to enter the assembly.
Meanwhile, two female legislators of the PTI — Sidra Imran and Rabia Azfar Nizami — made it to the assembly from another gate after security staff cordoned the main gate due to commotion caused by the opposition.
The PTI lawmakers had disrupted the assembly proceedings on Monday when opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh was denied permission to address the House before his turn. Subsequently, the opposition legislators created a rumpus and also brought a charpoy into the House, symbolising it as the “funeral of democracy”, thus drawing criticism from the treasury benches.
The speaker later expressed displeasure over the behaviour of the opposition, saying they had violated the sanctity of the House. He subsequently banned the entry of eight PTI MPAs from the current session.
